The Lone Star Trail (1943)

Purely Joyful Movie!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Tex Ritter always looked and sounded good and his Texas upbringing showed when he essayed cowboy roles.Johnny Mack Brown, on the other hand, was not a native-born cowboy, in fact, started his movie career as leading man to such leading ladies as Joan Crawford, but he became one of the most popular Western stars, and with very good reason.First, he was a good-looking, athletic man, having been, in fact, a college football star. Somehow, he adapted himself to the cowboy role and seemed perfectly natural in his dozens of Western roles.In this small film, he doesn't have to stretch, except in the fight scenes, but where acting replaces action, he continues to shine.He and Tex are sided by Fuzzy Knight, whose part stretches him a bit and he's not the silly stutterer he played too often. Really Knight made a good Western player.Again not needing to do much but look good, Jennifer Holt as usual does that extremely well, but she always was much more than the proverbial pretty face: She came from a family of actors and never let the side down.Jimmy Wakely, later a star in his own series, is here with his two side-men, the great Johnny Bond and Scotty Harrel. They, as friends and allies with our heroes, must join in confronting the bad guys, including Robert Mitchum. Wow, even as a beginner, Mitchum was so smooth, so in control, that he would become a huge star just seemed inevitable in the way he handled even this type of small part.Cast and the script by Oliver Drake make this potentially routine film something more, and they are helped by directing from veteran Ray Taylor. And music from Ritter and the Wakely trio is just icing on the cake.I have no hesitation in recommending "The Lone Star Trail," and you can find a copy at YouTube.

The Lone Star Trail pairs two B picture cowboy heroes Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter in a tale of investigation and apprehension, the result of which would be to clear a man who has already served two years in prison for a robbery he didn't commit.The innocent man is one of our heroes Johnny Mack Brown and being on parole he can't carry a six gun which would cramp the style of any cowboy hero. That's all right because Tex Ritter who is really an undercover government agent gets in enough shooting for both of them.Lots of action is involved to cover up a poorly plotted script because the bad guys are out to get Brown even before he's set foot in town. Seems to me that all they had to do was keep a cool head and do nothing suspicious and Brown or Ritter couldn't have touched them.Fuzzy Knight has some good scenes as the sidekick who is also the town barber and Jennifer Holt, daughter of Jack and sister of Tim, looks pretty in her cowgirl outfit as the girl Johnny Mack Brown left behind. And one of the villains, none other than Robert Mitchum at the beginning of his long and illustrious career.For fans of B westerns and Robert Mitchum completists.

Forget the story here pardners, you'll be doing a double take when you see who shows up in this one. He's listed as Bob in the credits, but if you're a movie fan, there's no denying that villain Ben Slocum is played by Robert Mitchum! You just never know who's going to show up in these old B Westerns from the Thirties and Forties, and catching a name like Mitchum is an unexpected treat.From 1939 to 1943, Johnny Mack Brown did twenty eight films for Universal, teaming with Bob Baker for a half dozen, going it alone for another fifteen pictures, and then joined by Tex Ritter for seven more. Along with Fuzzy Knight, they formed an unofficial trio of sorts, portraying different characters in their films together. It also wasn't unusual to see the Jimmy Wakely Trio adding some musical accompaniment to the story, along with veterans Earl Hodgins and Jennifer Holt, all of whom appeared in "The Lone Star Trail".In the story, Brown is fresh out of jail after being framed by Slocum and his cronies, which include the Mayor of Dead Falls, Cyrus Jenkins. Jenkins is portrayed by Earle Hodgins, who usually turns up in Westerns as a comic relief character, but he plays it straight here. I prefer him in his comic bits, he just has the right looks and temperament for those kinds of roles, like he did in "The Old Chisholm Trail", another Brown/Ritter/Knight story. There he played the part of Indian Hopping Crow.Tex Ritter shows up in an opening scene when he backs up JMB during a stagecoach attack by the outlaws. Their characters are unknown to each other at the start of the show, which is why I mentioned earlier that they were an unofficial trio with Fuzzy. Though they often share the same goals in their pictures, they don't necessarily work together, but criss-cross each other as the story plays out. In this one Fargo Steele (Ritter) has to pull Blaze Barker's (Brown) fat out of the fire more than once before it's all over.With a lively saloon brawl and some well placed tunes by Wakely's group, this is a fairly entertaining and quick paced Western. One interesting bit of trivia - in the picture I mentioned earlier, "The Old Chisholm Trail" - Tex joins the Jimmy Wakely Trio around the campfire to sing a song called 'The Lone Star Trail' - what were the odds?!!

John Mack Brown plays the stereotypical bad guy/good guy framed for a crime by alleged friends. After release from prison he returns to home town to expose the real crooks. Tex Ritter is an undercover U.S. Marshal pretending to be an itinerant gunslinger who consistently saves Johnny from death.There are some other plot twists which help maintain interest and raise the script above predictable. And of course several requisite fight scenes. The love angle is barely a minor storyline and really is just an excuse to wrap the story without resorting to the bad guys being arrested by the local sheriff.Of course the bonus for western fans is John Mack Brown and Tex Ritter together in same movie. And that is worth the price of admission.